Justia U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

Petitioners, a husband and wife and their son, were citizens and natives of Armenia who were ordered removed from the United States following the denial of their asylum claim in 1997. They resided in the country until 2011, when they filed a motion to reopen their asylum claim. The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) denied this motion, and Petitioners appealed. The First Circuit Court of Appeals held that, although the BIA's refusal to open must be affirmed, the Court would stay the mandate as to the son for ninety days to allow him to apply for relief because he was a strong candidate for deferred action. To ensure the family was not removed before the government had time to consider the question, the Court also stayed the mandate for ninety days as to the husband and wife. View "Gasparian v. Holder" on Justia Law

In 2007, there were two shooting deaths, one of a civilian, Liko Kenney, and one of a police officer, Bruce McKay, in Franconia, New Hampshire. Following a traffic stop, Kenney shot Officer McKay four times and ran over him twice with his car. Thereafter, a witness to the shooting, Gregory Floyd, approached Kenney and asked him to drop his weapon. When Kenney refused, Floyd shot and killed Kenney, fearing that Kenney might shoot Floyd or his son, who had gone to McKay's assistance. In this civil rights action, under 42 U.S.C. 1983, David Kenney, the civilian victim's father and the executor of his son's estate, sued McKay, the town of Franconia and its police officials, and Floyd. The district court granted the town and police defendants' motion for summary judgment as to all federal claims, concluding that Plaintiff lacked sufficient evidence to prove any violation of Kenney's Fourth Amendment rights had occurred. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) Plaintiff failed to offer any evidence of a constitutional violation regarding McKay's actions toward Kenney; and (2) therefore, the claims against the town and McKay's supervisors also failed. View "Kenney v. Floyd" on Justia Law